See the grey star? See "Track this forum"? Click the link and log-in to El Reg forums, if you haven't done so already.

Hey Presto! The star turns yellow and the thread you want to monitor will live in a box on the right hand side of your forums page for two weeks - (which is when we typically switch off comments on story posts. It's the only way we can cope.)

Also we have re-organised our forum front pages for easier navigation.